Saddam Hussein captured - Dec 13, 2003 - HISTORY.com Saddam Hussein captured Publisher A+E Networks After spending nine months on the run, former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein is captured on this day in 2003. Saddam’s downfall began on March 20, 2003, when the United States led an invasion force into Iraq to topple his government, which had controlled the country for more than 20 years. Saddam Hussein was born into a poor family in Tikrit, 100 miles outside of Baghdad, in 1937. After moving to Baghdad as a teenager, Saddam joined the now-infamous Baath party, which he would later lead. He participated in several coup attempts, finally helping to install his cousin as dictator of Iraq in July 1968. Saddam took over for his cousin 11 years later. During his 24 years in office, Saddam’s secret police, charged with protecting his power, terrorized the public, ignoring the human rights of the nation’s citizens. While many of his people faced poverty, he lived in incredible luxury, building more than 20 lavish palaces throughout the country.

Obsessed with security, he is said to have moved among them often, always sleeping in secret locations. In the early 1980s, Saddam involved his country in an eight-year war with Iran, which is estimated to have taken more than a million lives on both sides. He is alleged to have used nerve agents and mustard gas on Iranian soldiers during the conflict, as well as chemical weapons on Iraq’s own Kurdish population in northern Iraq in 1988. After he invaded Kuwait in 1990, a U.S.-led coalition invaded Iraq in 1991, forcing the dictator’s army to leave its smaller neighbor, but failing to remove Saddam from power. Throughout the 1990s, Saddam faced both U.N. economic sanctions and air strikes aimed at crippling his ability to produce chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons. With Iraq continuing to face allegations of illegal oil sales and weapons-building, the United States again invaded the country in March 2003, this time with the expressed purpose of ousting Saddam and his regime.

Despite proclaiming in early March 2003 that, “it is without doubt that the faithful will be victorious against aggression,” Saddam went into hiding soon after the American invasion, speaking to his people only through an occasional audiotape, and his government soon fell. After declaring Saddam the most important of a list of his regime’s 55 most-wanted members, the United States began an intense search for the former leader and his closest advisors. On July 22, 2003, Saddam’s sons, Uday and Qusay, who many believe he was grooming to one day fill his shoes, were killed when U.S. soldiers raided a villa in which they were staying in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. Five months later, on December 13, 2003, U.S. soldiers found Saddam Hussein hiding in a six-to-eight-foot deep hole, nine miles outside his hometown of Tikrit. The man once obsessed with hygiene was found to be unkempt, with a bushy beard and matted hair. He did not resist and was uninjured during the arrest. A soldier at the scene described him as “a man resigned to his fate.” Saddam is now in Iraqi custody with U.S.

security and faces trial in front of a special tribunal on several criminal cases pending against him. The first began in October 2005. On November 5 of the next year, he was found guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced to death by hanging. After an unsuccessful appeal, he was executed on December 30, 2006. Despite a prolonged search, weapons of mass destruction were never found in Iraq. Related Videos BBC ON THIS DAY | 14 | 2003: Saddam Hussein captured 2003: Saddam Hussein captured The ousted President of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, is under arrest after he was captured by US soldiers. "Ladies and gentlemen, we got him," US administrator Paul Bremer told journalists in Baghdad. "The tyrant is a prisoner." Saddam Hussein was found hidden in a tiny bunker at a farmhouse about 10 miles (15 km) south of his home town, Tikrit. A US military spokesman, Major-General Raymond Odierno, said the operation was launched soon after a tip-off from a member of Saddam Hussein's own extended family.

"Over the last 10 days we brought in about five to 10 members of these families, and finally got the ultimate information from one of these individuals," he said. Reward There was a $25m reward offered by the US authorities for information leading to his capture. A similar reward was claimed for revealing the whereabouts of Saddam Hussein's sons, Uday and Qusay, who were killed in a raid by US forces in the northern city of Mosul in July. Saddam Hussein was found in a "spider hole" or cellar just big enough for a person to lie down in, and six to eight feet (1.8m to 2.5m) deep. The entrance was topped with a polystyrene lid and covered with a rug, bricks and dirt. Saddam had been breathing through an air vent and extractor fan. The former Iraqi dictator was armed with a pistol, but Major-General Odierno said he gave himself up without resistance. He seemed "disoriented" and "bewildered", the Major-General said, and was arrested at 2030 local time (1730 GMT).

Dishevelled Two unidentified people said to be "close allies" of Saddam Hussein were also arrested. Weapons and more than $750,000 in cash was confiscated. Video footage was released by the US military showing a dishevelled Saddam with a long black and grey beard undergoing a medical examination. The former president had not been seen since US forces entered Baghdad in April. Despite one of the most intensive manhunts in history, he has evaded capture for eight months. As the news spread throughout Iraq, people began celebrating in the streets of Baghdad and the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk by sounding their horns and firing into the air. Saddam's stronghold towns of Tikrit and Fallujah, however, were sombre and quiet. Saddam Hussein captured | World news | The Guardian Saddam Hussein captured · Bush: Saddam will face justice · Arrested without shot being fired · World leaders welcome capture Video image of captured former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein displayed at a news conference in Baghdad.

Photograph: AP Associated Press Sunday 14 December 2003 10.09 EST First published on Sunday 14 December 2003 10.09 EST Share on Messenger Close US forces today captured a bearded and haggard-looking Saddam Hussein in an underground hideout on a farm near his hometown, Tikrit. "Ladies and gentlemen, we got him," Paul Bremer, the civilian head of Iraq's US-led administration, told a news conference. "The tyrant is a prisoner." In a televised address this afternoon, the US president, George Bush, said that Saddam will face "the justice he denied to millions". He said that the former Iraqi leader's arrest "marks the end of the road for him and all who bullied and killed in his name". However, Mr Bush also cautioned that it does not mean the end of violence in Iraq . "In the history of Iraq, a dark and painful era is over. A hopeful day has arrived," he said. The arrest comes eight months after US troops swept into the Iraqi capital, and brings an end to one of the most intensive manhunts in history.

Radio stations in Baghdad played celebratory music, residents fired small arms in the air in celebration, and passengers on buses and trucks shouted: "They got Saddam! They got Saddam!" Saddam was captured without a shot being fired at 8.30pm local time (1730 GMT) in a walled farm compound in Adwar, a town 10 miles from Tikrit. The underground hideout was little more than a specially-prepared "spider hole", with just enough space for a man to lie down, Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, the top US military commander in Iraq, said. He added that bricks and dirt camouflaged the entrance to the hiding place. Video footage of the former Iraqi president undergoing a medical examination after he had been captured showed a dishevelled figure with unkempt dark hair and a thick beard that had become grey. $750,000 (£430,000) in $100 notes, two AK47s and a taxi were also found in the compound. Saddam was discovered along with two supporters, but Lt Gen Sanchez said DNA tests had not yet proved their identities.

The two men were "fairly insignificant" regime figures, a US defence official said. Saddam 'has been cooperative' Lt Gen Sanchez, who saw Saddam overnight, said the deposed leader "has been cooperative and is talkative". He described Saddam as "a tired man, a man resigned to his fate". However Adel Abdel-Mahdi, a senior official of a Shia political party who, along with other Iraqi leaders, visited Saddam in captivity, said that the toppled dictator was "unrepentant and defiant". "When we told him, 'if you go to the streets now, you will see the people celebrating,' he answered, 'those are mobs.' When we told him about the mass graves, he replied, 'those are thieves', Mr Abdel-Mahdi said. "He didn't seem apologetic. He seemed defiant, trying to find excuses for the crimes in the same way he did in the past," he added. Major General Ray Odierno, the commander of 4th infantry division - which participated in what the US military called "Operation Red Dawn" to capture Saddam - said the ousted dictator had a pistol but did not attempt to use it.

At a news conference in Tikrit, he described how US forces were able to determine Saddam's location, saying: "We tried to work through family and tribal ties that might have been close to Saddam Hussein." Finally, he said, US forces had received good information from one of the five to 10 individuals who had come forward. Maj Gen Odierno said Saddam did not appear to be directly organising resistance, noting that no communication devices were found in his hiding place. "I believe he was there more for moral support," he said. A Pentagon diagram showed the hiding place as a 6ft-deep vertical tunnel, with a shorter tunnel branching out horizontally from one side. A pipe to the concrete surface at ground level provided air. The entrance to the hideout was under the floor of a small, walled compound, with a room in one corner and a lean-to attached to the room. The tunnel was roughly in the middle of the compound. "He was just caught like a rat," Maj Gen Odierno said at the press conference in one of Saddam's nearby grandiose palaces on the Tigris river. DNA tests confirm identity A US defence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Saddam had admitted his identity when captured.

DNA tests had confirmed the identity, the president of Iraqi governing council, Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim, said. Coalition officials had privately said that they did not expect Saddam to be taken alive, assuming that he would rather die than be captured. Many Iraqis - both opponents of Saddam and the insurgents who fought for his return - agreed with that opinion. The former Iraqi president had not been seen since US forces entered Baghdad, in April. Despite the high-profile and bloody operation to kill his sons, and the capture of many of the former regime's most senior figures, Saddam had proved elusive. In hiding, he kept up a flow of defiant taped messages urging Iraqis to fight US-led forces. White House press secretary Scott McClellan said: "The Iraqi people can finally be assured that Saddam Hussein will not be coming back - they can see it for themselves. "The president believes this is very good news for the Iraqi people. Saddam Hussein was a brutal, oppressive dictator, responsible for decades of atrocities." World leaders welcome capture Leaders of US allies in Iraq and nations opposed to the war - including France and Germany - welcomed the capture. The prime minister, Tony Blair, said that Saddam would be put on trial by an Iraqi court.

He said that the former Iraqi leader's capture "removes the shadow" over Iraq as he gave early confirmation of the arrest. "We can put the past behind us. Where his rule meant terror and division and brutality, let his capture bring about unity, reconciliation and peace between all the people of Iraq," Mr Blair said in a later address. It is thought that Saddam's capture could break the spirit of some of his diehard supporters and ease the anxieties of many Iraqis that Saddam would return to suppress them. "His arrest will put an end to military and terrorist attacks and the Iraqi nation will achieve stability," said Amar al-Hakin, a senior member of the Shia political party the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq. However, there are also fears that the capture could provoke further attacks by insurgents. Lt Gen Sanchez said Saddam's capture would not end the campaign against US-led forces in Iraq. "We do not expect, at this point in time, that we will have a complete elimination of those attacks," he said. US officials will also hope to extract intelligence on the alleged weapons programmes that the US and UK went to war to stop but which, as yet, have not been discovered.

Saddam Hussein Captured - ABC News ABC News BAGHDAD, Iraq, Dec. 14, 2003 0 Shares Email Deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein has been captured near his home town of Tikrit, the U.S. military has confirmed. Saddam, who ruled Iraq for 23 years until his ouster in April, has been a fugitive since then with a $25 million bounty on his head. In an address to the nation, President Bush gave the following message to Iraqis: "You do not have to fear the rule of Saddam Hussein ever again." He said Saddam's capture will bring sovereignty and dignity to Iraq and the opportunity for a better life. "It is the end of the road for him," he said. "And for the Baathists, there will be no return to privilege in Iraq." "Iraqis who have chosen the side of freedom, now have won," added President Bush. "In the history of Iraq, a dark and painful era is over," he said. "A hopeful day has arrived." ‘The Tyrant is a Prisoner’ Confirmation of Saddam's capture came at a news conference in Baghdad after rumors swirled through the Iraqi capital. The U.S.

administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, opened the press conference with the words, "Ladies and gentlemen, we got him." "This is a great day in Iraq's history," Bremer said. "The tyrant is a prisoner." Bremer said that Saddam was captured Saturday in a cellar in the town of Ad Dawr, 10 miles from Tikrit. Sanchez described Saddam's demeanor during the arrest, saying he seemed "a tired man. Also I think a man resigned." Saddam was in a six-to-eight-foot-deep "spider hole" that had been camouflaged with bricks and dirt. The soldiers saw the hole, investigated and found him inside, armed with a pistol, said Maj. Gen. Raymond Odierno, the commander of the 4th Infantry Division that assisted in capturing the leader. Video played at the press conference showed an air vent and fan inside the hole to allow Saddam to remain hidden for an extended period. There were, however, no communication devices found. The entrance to the hiding place was a few feet from a small, mud-brick hut where Saddam had been staying. The hut consisted of two rooms, a bedroom with clothes scattered about and a "rudimentary kitchen," Odierno said.

Soldiers found new clothes, including T-shirts and socks, still unwrapped in the bedroom. Forces from the 4th Infantry Division along with Special Forces captured Saddam, the U.S. military said. There were no shots fired or injuries in the raid, called "Operation Red Dawn," said Lt. Gen. Richardo Sanchez. ‘A New Beginning’ for Iraqis Saddam was betrayed by one of his own, said Odierno. Over the last 10 days, U.S. soldiers have questioned "five to 10 members" of families "close to Saddam." "Finally we got the ultimate information from one of these individuals," he said Sunday from Tikrit. In Baghdad, shop owners closed their doors, worried that all the shooting would make the streets dangerous. "I'm very happy for the Iraqi people. Life is going to be safer now," said 35-year-old Yehya Hassan, a resident of Baghdad. "Now we can start a new beginning." Bush first learned of the capture on Saturday afternoon, and was given confirmation early today by national security adviser Condoleezza Rice. British Prime Minister Tony Blair was among the first U.S.

allies to confirm the early reports, saying that "Saddam is gone from power." U.S. forces officially informed the world of their success and showed a video of Saddam's capture during a news conference in Baghdad today. The video showed him undergoing a medical check. Soldiers took what appeared to be DNA swabs from his mouth. Saddam, with a straggly, greying beard, was not putting up resistance. A picture which appeared to be taken later showed Saddam clean shaven. It was not immediately clear how Saddam's identity was confirmed, but the former Iraqi leader is known to have a small tattoo on one hand. Preliminary DNA testing is also thought to have been conducted. Two men "affiliated with Saddam Hussein" were detained with him, and soldiers confiscated two Kalashnikov rifles, a pistol, a taxi and $750,000 in $100 bills, Sanchez said. The deposed Iraqi president is now being held at Baghdad's main airport, formerly known as Saddam International Airport. Saddam's capture is a defining moment in the Iraq war and subsequent rebuilding process, and Bush administration officials have hoped it would lessen or break the organized resistance against U.S.

troops that have led to scores of deaths since the end of combat operations. Saddam proved elusive at least twice during the war, when dramatic military strikes came up empty in their efforts to capture him. Since then, he has appeared in both video and audio tapes. U.S. officials named him No. 1 on their list of 55 most-wanted Iraqis, the lead card in a special deck of most-wanted cards. But U.S. officials struck a major blow earlier this year when they killed Saddam's two sons during a raid. What Now? Iraqi National Congress leader Ahmad Chalabi said Saddam should be put on trial. "Let him face justice," Chalabi said. The head of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim said that DNA tests had confirmed that a suspect detained in Iraq was ousted Saddam. "I have the pleasure to announce on behalf of the Iraqi people that Saddam Hussein has been detained," he told a joint news conference with Spanish Foreign Minister Ana Palacio. "A DNA test has already been carried out." Sanchez said U.S. forces in Iraq were prepared for any escalation of attacks launched in retaliation for Saddam's capture.

Saddam joined the socialist Baath party when he was 19. He made his mark three years later when he participated in a 1959 assassination attempt against Iraqi Prime Minister Abdul Karim Kassim. Saddam was shot in the leg during the botched effort and fled the country for several years, first to Syria, then Egypt. In 1968, he helped lead the revolt that finally brought the Baath party to power under Gen. Ahmed Hassan Bakr. In the process, he landed the vice president's post, from which he built an elaborate network of secret police to root out dissidents. Eleven years later, in the wake of what has been widely characterized as a coup, Bakr announced his resignation and relinquished the presidency to Saddam. Soon, the streets of Iraq were plastered with 20-foot-high portraits of the new leader. Iraqi interim Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said on Sunday that the arrest of Saddam should have a dramatic impact on security in Iraq. "I think this will have a dramatic effect on security in Iraq," Zebari told BBC World television by telephone from Paris. "This is the happiest news, the best news.

We have waited for so long," he said. 0 Shares How Saddam Hussein was captured SADDAM HUSSEIN 1050: Tip-off received, two targets identified and given codenames 1800: 600 troops move towards 'Wolverine 1' and 'Wolverine 2' 2000: Targets searched, Saddam Hussein not found 2030: Hole found, Saddam Hussein captured with no resistance Saddam Hussein was captured after a tip-off led American troops to a small, underground hole concealed next to farm buildings near the former leader's hometown of Tikrit. Soldiers were seconds away from throwing a hand grenade into the hole, when Saddam Hussein emerged and surrendered, Colonel James Hickey who led the raid said. The critical piece of information, obtained at 1050 local time on Saturday, came from an individual who had been arrested the previous day in Baghdad, he said. My name is Saddam Hussein.

I am the president of Iraq and I want to negotiate Saddam Hussein Squalor of secret refuge By 1800, under the cover of darkness, some 600 troops from the US 4th Infantry Division began moving towards two locations considered likely hide-outs near the town of al-Dawr. Their mission to kill or capture Saddam Hussein, they assaulted the targets - codenamed Wolverine 1 and Wolverine 2 - at about 2000 but did not find the former leader. They then sealed off the area and conducted a wider search, discovering a small walled farm compound containing a metal lean-to structure and a mud hut. Underground hide-out Searching the compound, troops discovered a so-called "spider hole", camouflaged with bricks and dirt and covered with polystyrene and a carpet. Saddam Hussein was found in a carefully hidden hole Colonel Hickey said that the soldiers looked into the hole and saw a figure inside it. "Two hands appeared. The individual clearly wanted to surrender," he said. Saddam Hussein was pulled out at 2036, "disoriented" and "bewildered", according to Major General Ray Odierno, commander of the 4th Infantry Division.

He put up no resistance although armed with a pistol. "My name is Saddam Hussein. I am the president of Iraq and I want to negotiate," he told the US troops in English, according to Major Bryan Reed, operations officer for the 1st Brigade, 4th Infantry Division. "Regards from President Bush," US special forces replied, Major Reed recounted. Two other people, believed to have formed Saddam Hussein's small entourage, were also captured and taken away for interrogation. 'Very rudimentary' The underground chamber the former Iraqi leader had secreted himself in was six-to-eight feet (1.8 metres - 2.4 metres) deep, with enough space for a person to lie down, and an air vent and extractor fan. Tikrit: Saddam Hussein's home town Major General Odierno said the farm where the former leader was found consisted of "two very small rooms in an adobe hut". He said one was a bedroom that was cluttered with clothes, including new T-shirts and socks and a "very rudimentary" kitchen, with running water. Saddam Hussein would have moved from the building into the hole whenever coalition forces were in the area, Major General Odierno added.

He said the hole was very close to the Tigris river, within view of some of the captive's palaces. "I think it was rather ironic that he was in a hole in the ground across the river from these great palaces that he has built, where he robbed all the money from the Iraqi people," Major General Odierno said. 'Ultimate information' Although the area had been searched before, it was likely Saddam Hussein had not been there, as he was thought to have moved often and at short notice. The spokesman said it was likely he had been there for a short time when the "ultimate information" came from a member of a family brought in for questioning. No mobile phones or other communications equipment were found, suggesting that Saddam Hussein was providing "moral support" and was no longer co-ordinating the Iraqi resistance, Major General Odierno added. Top US military commander in Iraq, Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez said the former dictator was "talkative and co-operative", had no injuries and was in good health. Endgame Along with the former Iraqi dictator, troops discovered $750,000 cash in $100 bills, two AK-47 machine guns and a briefcase of documents.

A white and orange taxi was parked near the compound. The former Iraqi leader was removed at 2115 and taken to an undisclosed secure location, General Sanchez said. He showed a news conference a videotape of a dishevelled and heavily-bearded Saddam Hussein being examined by an American doctor. Saddam Hussein did not put up any resistance The mission came after a intense intelligence-gathering operation in the Tikrit area over several months. American forces gradually built up a picture of Saddam Hussein's likely whereabouts through tip-offs, interrogations of detainees and rigorous analysis of information. The tip-off on Saturday came as the first piece of so-called "actionable intelligence", pointing troops to a specific location. Analysts have suggested that Saddam Hussein hid near his home town Tikrit - his political and tribal powerbase - in the hope that remaining local supporters would shelter him from coalition forces. But it must be speculated that the $25m reward offered by the US for information leading to his capture may well have played a part in undermining these traditional loyalties - and sealing his fate.

Ex-Leader, Found Hiding in Hole, Is Detained Without a Fight By SUSAN SACHS and KIRK SEMPLE Published: December 14, 2003 BAGHDAD, Iraq, Dec. 14 - A force of 600 American soldiers captured Saddam Hussein in a raid on Saturday night on an isolated farm near Tikrit, American military officials said today. The former Iraqi president was found, haggard and disoriented but alive, hiding at the bottom of an 8-foot-deep hole. Mr. Hussein was armed with a pistol at the time of his capture, but he offered no resistance and not one shot was fired in the operation, military officials said. American authorities, along with members of the Iraqi Governing Council, said they were convinced that the captive was Mr. Hussein, in part because of positive DNA tests, and described him as a talkative man who seemed alternately resigned to his fate and belligerently defensive about his 35 years in power.

``He was unrepentant and even defiant,'' said Adnan Pachachi, the elder statesman of the council and one of four members who were ferried by helicopter today to the secret location where Mr. Hussein was held. ``He tried to justify himself by saying he was a just and firm ruler,'' said Mr. Pachachi, speaking at a news conference in Baghdad in which the Iraqi political leaders promised to eventually take custody of Mr. Hussein and try him in public on charges of genocide. ``Of course, our answer was that he was an unjust ruler responsible for the deaths of thousands of people.'' The capture of Mr. Hussein solved one of the great mysteries that tormented the American-led occupation force in Iraq: whether he was still alive and, if so, where he was hiding. The news was greeted by the fierce staccato of celebratory gunfire in the streets of the capital. Some people wept openly, pulling out worn photographs of relatives who they said were executed in the waves of political repression that marked the Iraqi leader's rule. In a nationally televised address from the White House, President Bush said the capture of Mr.

Hussein was ``crucial to the rise of a free Iraq.'' He added: ``In the history of Iraq, a dark and painful era is over. A hopeful day has arrived. All Iraqis can now come together and reject violence and build a new Iraq.'' The raid was organized in the space of a few hours, after officers with the Fourth Infantry Division received information about Mr. Hussein's whereabouts from a person with close ties to Mr. Hussein's family, said Maj. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the division commander. General Odierno did not identify the tipster, who had been arrested about one week ago, but said that as many as 10 people with family and tribal connections to Mr. Hussein had been detained over the last week and a half and that their interrogations had produced credible intelligence that spurred the soldiers to act. General Odierno said his troops had to move swiftly and discreetly to the remote farm, which is located near the village of Ad Dwar about eight miles southeast of Tikrit, because the fugitive Iraqi leader was believed to change hiding places as frequently as every three to four hours. Military officials said they did not know how long Mr.

Hussein had been in the hole, which had an air pipe and a small fan embedded in a wall, but General Odierno said the former leader may have had as many as 30 similar hiding places around the country. The former Iraqi leader might have been using a small hut, with a bedroom and a rudimentary kitchen, near the hole on the rural compound. The compound was close to the Tigris River, the general said, and several boats were found on the riverside. The opening to the underground crawl space was covered by a rug and a smooth layer of dirt, with a styrofoam insert that could be lifted up and down easily, he added. ``He was caught like a rat,'' General Odierno told reporters. He said T-shirts, socks and other items of clothing, some of them new and still in packages, were found in the bedroom. Since April, when coalition forces pushed into Baghdad and declared the start of the occupation, American-led troops have tried to wipe away all vestiges of the old government in part by capturing or killing many of Mr. Hussein's former advisers and associates.

NPR : War in Iraq : Chronology of Saddam Hussein's Capture Credit: Reuters Limited � 2003 Dec. 15, 2003 -- Following is a chronology of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's capture by U.S. forces, Saturday, Dec. 13, according to U.S. military officials and NPR reports. All events are Baghdad time, unless otherwise noted: 10:50 a.m. Saturday: U.S. military officials receive information from a family with close personal ties to Saddam Hussein that he may be hiding in one of two locations near the town of Adwar, about 10 miles south of his hometown of Tikrit. About 600 soldiers from the First Brigade Combat Team of the U.S. Army's 4th Infantry Division along with coalition Special Forces units are assigned to kill or capture Saddam. About 6 p.m. Saturday: Under cover of darkness, the forces quickly begin moving toward the suspected hiding place. About 8 p.m. Saturday: Coalition forces raid the two sites, but initially fail to find Saddam. They cordon the area and begin an intensive search. In the next few minutes, forces find a suspicious location near one of the target sites.

Within a walled compound, a "spider hole" is detected, its entrance covered by Styrofoam and a carpet. 8:30 p.m. Saturday: Saddam is found hiding at the bottom of the hole, which was about six to eight feet deep and wide enough space for a person to lie down inside. Saddam, described by U.S. commanders as bewildered and disoriented, is captured without resistance. About 9:15 p.m. Saturday: Saddam is moved to a secure area. During a further search of the hole and surrounding area, two other Iraqis "affiliated" with Saddam are also detained. Forces also find $750,000 in $100 bills. Saddam, under coalition custody, is moved to an undisclosed location. Saturday Afternoon, ET: President Bush is notified of the capture, but Saddam's identity had not yet been verified. Early Sunday Morning, ET: Ambassador L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator in Iraq, calls President Bush, confirming that the captured man was Saddam. About 7 a.m.

Sunday, ET: At a Baghdad news conference, Bremer announces: "Ladies and gentlemen, we got him." 12:15 p.m. Sunday, ET: In a speech from the White House, President Bush tells Iraqis: "You will never have to fear the rule of Saddam Hussein ever again." Related NPR Stories Saddam Hussein - Biography - IMDb Saddam Hussein Biography Showing all 54 items Jump to: Overview (5) | Mini Bio (1) | Spouse (4) | Trade Mark (1) | Trivia (28) | Personal Quotes (15) Overview (5) Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti Nicknames 6' 1¼" (1.86 m) Mini Bio (1) Saddam Hussein was a bloody and brutal dictator who kept his country of Iraq at war almost constantly after assuming power in 1979. At least one million people died due to the machinations of Saddam. After his regime was toppled by the U.S. invasion of 2003, he wound up on a gallows, his life terminated at the end of a hangman's noose.

Saddam invaded neighboring Iran in 1980 and waged war for seven years and 11 months, making it the longest conventional war in the 20th Century. Saddam had hoped to take advantage of what he perceived as the chaos of the Iranian revolution to settle border disputes and suppress his own Shi'ite Muslim population. (Iran is predominantly Shi'ite while Hussein was a Sunni Muslim.) The war ended in a stalemate with approximately 500,000 Iraqis and 400,000 Iranians dead. Both sides, major oil producers, suffered economic losses of half-a-trillion dollars. Saddam used poison gas against Iranian troops, an atrocity even Adolf Hitler didn't engage on the battlefields of World War II. Beginning in 1986 and continuing through 1989, Saddam launched a deliberate campaign of genocide against the Kurds in northern Iraq. The campaign also targeted areas populated by other minorities, including Assyrians and Jews. In 1988, his forces launched a poison gas attack on the Kurdish town of Halabja that killed as many as 5,000 people and injured as many as 10,000.

In all, Saddam's three-year-long genocide against the Kurds and other minorities claimed as many as 182,000 lives. In 1990, the war-monger Saddam invaded Kuwait with the intention of looting and annexing the oil-rich country. An international coalition was put together by the first President George Bush and freed Kuwait but left Saddam in power. His son President George W. Bush put together a second coalition army dominated by American and British forces that invaded Iraq in March 2003 to depose the dictator. The invasion was launched on the pretext that he possessed weapons of mass destruction and was in league with al-Qaeda, the terrorist group that had launched the 9/11 attacks on the United States. Both charges were false, but it led to Saddam's capture in December 2003. He was subsequently tried and executed by the Iraqi interim government for the killing of 148 Iraqi Shi'ites in 1982. His death sentence was carried out on December 30, 2006. - IMDb Mini Biography By: Jon C.

Hopwood Spouse (4) (2003 - 30 December 2006) (his death) Nidal al-Hamdani (1990 - 30 December 2006) (his death) Samira Shabander (1986 - 30 December 2006) (his death) (1 child) Sajida Talfah ( 5 May 1963 - 30 December 2006) (his death) (5 children) Trade Mark (1) Moustache. Trivia (28) Declared himself President upon the resignation of President Ahmad Hassan al-Bakr due to "health problems" (16 July 1979). At a now-infamous meeting shown on Iraqi television, he had several members escorted out and executed in an "effort" to "cleanse" the Ba'ath Party (22 July 1979).

In an open letter to the American people, Hussein said that the attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center were retribution for the death and destruction America has unleashed against foreigners, including the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Gulf War and economic sanctions against Iraq. (18 September 2001). Had over 20 presidential palaces. His birthday was formerly an Iraqi national holiday. Wrote two novels, "Zabibah and the King" and "The Fortified Castle", under the pen name "He Who Wrote It.". An admirer of Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin . Ranked 55th on the Forbes World's Richest with an estimated worth of $7 billion. (2000). Attended Cairo (Egypt) University School of Law. An interrogator and torturer at the infamous "Palace of the End", the cellar of the former palace of King Faisal II. In 1956, he participated in an unsuccessful coup attempt against King Faisal II. In 1959, he and a group from the radical nationalist movement Ba'ath attempted to assassinate General Abd al-Karim Qasim , who had overthrown King Faisal II.

It was unsuccessful, forcing Saddam to go into exile until 9 February, 1963, when Qasim was tortured and killed by Ba'ath army officers after a kangaroo trial broadcast live on Iraqi television. Waged war against Iran from September 22, 1980 to August 1988. The Iran-Iraq war is estimated to have caused one million casualties including 250,000 Iraqi dead. Invaded Kuwait on August 2, 1990 and made it the 19th province of Iraq. Favorite movie was The Godfather (1972). Usually portrayed in US movies by actor Jerry Haleva . Has a look-alike puppet in the French show Les guignols de l'info (1988). His regime ended publicly, if not officially, on 9 April 2003, when citizens of Baghdad pulled down a statue of him erected to mark his 65th birthday. Children: Sons Uday Hussein and Qusay Hussein , daughters Raghda, Rana and Hala by first wife, Sajida; son Ali Saddam by second wife, Samira.

Uday controlled the media and was named Journalist of the Century by the Iraqi Union of Journalists. Qusay ran the elite Republican Guard and was considered Saddam's heir. Both brothers made a fortune smuggling oil. Saddam ordered Raghda's and Rana's husbands killed in 1996 after they plotted against him. Raghda, Rana and Sajida were placed under house arrest in 1997 when it was suspected they had a role in the 12 December 1996 ambush that nearly killed Uday. Hala's husband, Jamal Mustafa Sultan al-Tikriti, surrendered to U.S. troops in April 2003. Uday and Qusai were killed in Mosul during a firefight with United States troops in mid-July 2003. First wife Sajida is the daughter of Khairallah Tulfah, Saddam's uncle and first mentor. Their marriage was arranged when Saddam was 5 and Sajida was 7. However, the two didn't meet until 1958; they were married in Egypt during his exile.

While Sajida was officially Iraq's First Lady, Saddam has at least three other wives the Iraqi press kept silent about. His newest wife, Wafa, is the daughter of his last deputy prime minister, Abdul Tawab el-Mulla Howeish. In July 2003, a $25 million reward was offered for evidence of his whereabouts, his capture, or proof of his death. His sons, Uday Hussein and Qusay Hussein , were killed along with 2 others in a 6-hour standoff with United States forces at a palatial villa in Mosul, Iraq. (22 July 2003). Credited as "Himself" in the animated film South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999). Photos of the real Hussein (and the voice of Matt Stone ) were used for the animated character. 14 December 2003: Acting on a tip, coalition forces captured the dictator hiding in an underground crawl space on a farm in Adwar, 10 miles from Tikrit. When climbing out of the "spider hole" where he was hiding, he said to the US troops, "Don't shoot! I am Saddam Hussein!

I am the President of the Republic of Iraq and I wish to negotiate!" One of the troops replied, "President Bush sends his regards." Has been portrayed in movies and TV by actor James Evans of General Hospital (1963) fame. In 1980, he was given the key to Detroit, making him an honorary citizen. On November 5, 2006, he was sentenced to death by hanging for the murders of 148 people in the mostly-Shia town of Dujail in 1982. Personal Quotes (15) You Americans, you treat the Third World the way an Iraqi peasant treats his new bride. Three days of honeymoon, and then it's off to the fields. (1985) Allah is on our side. That is why we will beat the aggressor. Baghdad is determined to force the Mongols of our age to commit suicide at its gates. I am not going to answer to this so-called court, out of respect for the truth and the will of the Iraqi people. I've said what I've said, and I'm not guilty. I am not guilty, I am innocent.

I didn't say 'former president,' I said 'president,' and I have the constitutional rights according to the constitution, including immunity from prosecution. We are not intimidated by the size of the armies, or the type of hardware the US has brought. We are ready to sacrifice our souls, our children and our families so as not to give up Iraq. We say this so no one will think that America is capable of breaking the will of the Iraqis with its weapons. Who are you and what are you?... I need to know. If you are Iraqi, you know who I am... and you know that I do not tire. I am the president of Iraq and I refuse to answer these questions because this court is illegitimate. Politics is when you say you are going to do one thing while intending to do another. Then you do neither what you said nor what you intended. Remember the valiant Iraqi peasant and how he shot down an American Apache with an old weapon. There is much to be said for having an experienced international jurist who is entirely unconnected with the allied invaders, on the tribunal. Those who fight in God's cause will be victorious. [About to be hung.

An observer shouts "Go to Hell!"] To the Hell that is Iraq? See also Key events in the life of Saddam Hussein | World news | The Guardian Key events in the life of Saddam Hussein Associated Press Sunday 14 December 2003 09.49 EST First published on Sunday 14 December 2003 09.49 EST Share on Messenger Close April 28 1937 Saddam is born in a village near the desert town of Tikrit, north of Baghdad. 1957 He joins the underground Ba'ath Socialist party. 1958 Saddam is arrested for killing his brother-in-law, a Communist; spends six months in prison. October 7 1959 He is on the Ba'ath assassination team that ambushes Iraqi strongman General Abdel-Karim Kassem in Baghdad, wounding him. Saddam is wounded in the leg and flees to Syria then Egypt. February 8 1963 Saddam returns from Egypt after Ba'ath party takes part in coup that overthrows and kills Kassem. Ba'ath party ousted by the military in November.

July 17 1968 Baathists and army officers overthrow the regime. July 30 1968 Saddam takes charge of internal security after Ba'ath party ousts former allies. Authority passes to Revolutionary Command Council under Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, Saddam's cousin. July 16 1979 He takes over as president from al-Bakr and launches a massive purge of the Ba'ath party. September 22 1980 Saddam sends forces into Iran; war last eight years. March 28 1988 Saddam uses chemical weapons against the Kurdish town of Halabja, killing an estimated 5,000 civilians. August 2 1990 Iraq invades Kuwait. January 17 1991 Iraq is attacked by a US-led coalition under George Bush Senior; Kuwait is liberated in a month. March 1991 Saddam crushes a Shia revolt in south and Kurd revolt in north. April 17 1991 Complying with United Nations Resolution 687, Saddam starts providing information on weapons of mass destruction, but is accused of cheating.

February 20 1996 Orders killing of two sons-in-law who in 1995 defected to Jordan and had just returned to Baghdad after receiving guarantees of safety. December 16 1998 Weapons inspectors are withdrawn from Iraq. Hours later, four days of US-British air and missile strikes begin as punishment for Iraq's lack of cooperation. November 8 2002 Saddam is threatened with "serious consequences" if he does not disarm as ordered UN by Security Council resolution. November 27 2002 Saddam allows UN experts to begin work in Iraq for first time since 1998. December 7 2002 Saddam delivers to United Nations a declaration denying Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. The US says that the declaration is untruthful and the United Nations says it is incomplete. March 1 2003 The United Arab Emirates, at an Arab League summit, becomes first Arab nation to propose publicly that Saddam should step down.

March 7 2003: United States, Britain and Spain propose ordering Saddam to give up banned weapons by March 17 or face war; other nations led by France on the polarised UN Security Council oppose any new resolution that would authorise military action. March 17 2003: George Bush gives Saddam 48 hours to leave Iraq. March 18 2003 Iraq's leadership rejects Bush's ultimatum. March 20 2003 US forces open war on Iraq with a military strike on Dora Farms, a target south of Baghdad where Saddam and his sons are said to be. Saddam appears on Iraqi television later in the day. April 4 2003 Iraqi television shows a video of Saddam walking along a Baghdad street. April 7 2003 US warplanes bomb a section of the Mansur district in Baghdad where Saddam and his sons were said to be meeting. April 9 2003 Jubilant crowds greet US troops in Baghdad, go on looting rampages, and topple 40ft statue of Saddam.

July 22 2003 Saddam's sons, Qusay and Uday, are killed in a gun battle with US troops. American forces then raid the northern city of Mosul and later say they missed Saddam "by a matter of hours". July 27 2003 US troops raid three farms in Tikrit. Again, officials later say they missed Saddam by 24 hours. July 31 2003 Two of Saddam's daughters, Raghad and Rana, and their nine children are given asylum by Jordan's King Abdullah II. September 5 2003 Major General Ray Odierno of the US 4th Infantry Division says his troops have captured several of Saddam's former bodyguards in the Tikrit area in the past month and may be closing in on the deposed Iraqi dictator. November 16 The last of nine tapes attributed to Saddam Hussein since he was removed from power is released. It tells Iraqis to step up their resistance to the US-led occupation, saying the United States and its allies misjudged the difficulty of occupying Iraq.

December 13 Saddam is captured at 8.30 pm (1730 GMT) in the town of Adwar, 10 miles south of Tikrit. He was hiding in a specially prepared "spider hole". NPR : War in Iraq : Saddam Hussein Credit: Reuters Limited © 2003 Dec. 14, 2003 -- Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi leader who took his nation into three disastrous wars during his nearly quarter-century of rule, has been captured, some eight months after a U.S.-led invasion toppled his government. During Saddam's dicatatorship, he led his nation into wars with Iran in the 1980s, then with the United States and its allies in 1991. In 2003, by his refusal to cede power, he entered a month-long war with the United States, Britain and other coalition forces that ended with Saddam thrown from power and forced into hiding. Saddam was the preeminent strongman in Iraq since the late 1960s, but his name did not become a household word in the United States until Aug.

2, 1990, when he launched his army on a blitzkrieg attack against Kuwait. In response, the United States built up a military force half a million strong in Saudi Arabia and in the waters of the Persian Gulf, and President George Bush gave the orders to go to war against Iraq on Jan. 16, 1991. Saddam Hussein also took to the airwaves that night to appeal to all Arabs everywhere to rise up against the United States in the great battle between the Arab world and the infidels. The "mother of all battles" proved to be short-lived. Allied warplanes pounded Iraq and Iraqi forces in Kuwait for nearly two months. Then a ground invasion took back Kuwait in one hundred hours, leaving tens of thousands of Iraqis killed, but only 500 Allied deaths. Saddam Hussein's life had been permeated by violence -- in wars, in coups successful and unsuccessful, in assassination, treachery and terrorism. Born in the central Iraqi town of Tikrit in 1936, Saddam learned violence at an early age.

By the time he was a teenager, his biographers say, he had carried out his first killing, the stabbing murder of a Communist militant. In 1959, he was a member of the hit squad that sought to assassinate Iraq's military leader, Abdel Karim Kassem. Kassem's car was riddled with bullets, but he survived. Saddam was wounded in the leg and fled to Cairo. He returned to Iraq a few years later and began to organize gangs for the rising Baath Party. When the Baathists took power in 1968, Saddam became Iraq's second most powerful leader, turning his gangs into an intricate array of secret police organizations that would eventually infiltrate every aspect of Iraq's political life. Saddam took the supreme spot for himself in 1979, eliminating his rivals in a power grab captured on videotape. At a meeting of Iraq's Revolutionary Command Council, those who were taken out of the hall were shot, by those who had allied themselves with Saddam. A year later, Saddam made the first of his great political miscalculations. With the Islamic Revolution only a year old in neighboring Iran, Saddam ordered his troops to invade.

The Iran-Iraq War lasted for eight years and eventually ended in stalemate. Saddam wanted to be the great leader who unites all Arabs into one of the world's richest and most powerful nations. Oil and arms would be the means. Saddam spent billions to acquire an enormous arsenal, which would include an effort to obtain nuclear weapons. But the war with Iran put enormous strains on the economy of Iraq. Saddam needed more resources, and in 1990 he seized Kuwait and its oil fields, claiming that Kuwait was actually a province of Iraq. The invasion of Kuwait was Saddam's second great political and military miscalculation, says Andrew Parasiliti, director of the Middle East Initiative at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. The Gulf War devastated Iraq and nearly toppled Saddam. In the north the Kurds rose up against his rule, and in the south, Shi'ite Muslims rebelled. Saddam enleashed his military on both. The United States looked the other way, and Saddam retained power in Baghdad. After that, says Andrew Parasiliti, Saddam could no longer cast himself as the modern day Saladin, who defeated the Crusaders and captured Jerusalem in the name of Islam eight hundred years ago.

In the years after the Gulf War, Saddam continued to fight the U.S. and the West, but it was a more subtle war. It involved a hide-and-seek game with U.N. weapons inspectors over whether Iraq retained chemical and biological weapons. And it involved an international propaganda struggle over economic sanctions, which the United Nations imposed in part to rid Iraq of its prohibited weapons. Saddam proved as intransigent on this issue as he had on all others. And it brought a confrontation with another U.S. president, Bill Clinton, who ordered the four-day bombing of Iraq in December 1998. As he did after the Gulf War, Saddam cast this too as a victory for Iraq. A decade after his father assembled a U.S.-led coalition to eject Iraq from Kuwait, President George W. Bush began to push for Saddam's disarmament, warning that Iraq and its suspected possession of weapons of mass destruction made it part of an "axis of evil" that threatened world peace, along with Iran and North Korea. Claiming that Iraq was failing to cooperate with U.N. weapons inspections, Bush pushed the U.N. Security Council for months to take a tougher stance with Baghdad.

When France and other members of the Security Council refused to agree to threaten military action, Bush, and his close ally, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, decided to act on their own. Bush gave Saddam a 48-hour deadline to leave Iraq. When Saddam refused, Bush ordered a military strike designed to "decapitate" the Iraqi leadership. A massive air bombing campaign and land invasion followed, and U.S. forces rapidly advanced toward Baghdad. Less than three weeks later, the Iraqi regime collapsed, though sporadic fighting continued in the capital and other cities. Fighting has continued, with U.S., British and other coalition forces the prime targets of Iraqi insurgents. More than 300 U.S. troops have been killed since May 1, when President Bush declared an end to major hostilities. Saddam sought to paint himself as a champion of the Arabs, but his legacy is a dismal one for the people of Iraq. Of 23 years that he ruled Iraq, only two were spent in peace and free from the burden of international sanctions. Related NPR Stories

Question: What is the name of the home town of Saddam Hussein, close to where he was captured in 2003?
Answer: Tikrit